Posts Tagged ‘Millvale’
Millvale Waterfront Trailing
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
How did the humbly narrating chicken cross this road? Carefully.
Millvale, a Borough of Allegheny County which sits opposite Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville on the opposing shore of the Allegheny River, that’s where I was. The intersection pictured above allows pedestrian and bike traffic the chance to cross a de facto highway interchange which is… an interesting experience… and it requires pedestrians to go pretty far out of their way to simply cross the street.
Saying that, managed it. Carefully.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To access the riverfront park, you cross over a set of grade level rail tracks and then under a rail bridge which carries another set of them.
These tracks connect to the 33rd street rail bridge, and ultimately over to the north side tracks leading to the Merchant Street Bridge to the west, then to the rail trench in Allegheny Commons Park, the Island Avenue Yard, eventually Conway, and the continent beyond. There’s other rail connections which branch off, of course.
As mentioned yesterday – methodology wise – one chunk at a time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I did break off of my route for about a half hour and walked under a mile or so down the path pictured above. There’s a neat clearing back there, which offered what would be great views of passing locomotives, but I definitively ‘felt eyes’ on me back there.
Where this path leads is super isolated, and I’m 100% sure that there were encampments populated by people who wouldn’t take too kindly to some stranger with a camera showing up. I turned on my heels and reversed direction, and couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched for a distance. Kept on doing the heel spin thing to see if I was being stalked, but didn’t see anything or anyone. Still…
I’ve learned to listen to instinct, over the years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back on the proper trail, and moving westwards through the waterfront park, I headed down towards a boat launch where I hoped to be able to see the water, a viewpoint largely blocked by all of these trees.
Really lives up to the ‘sylvania’ part of this state’s name, I tell’s ya. There were a few other people milling about, riding bikes and that sort of thing.
I headed down to the ramp.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is what the scene looked like – all hand held – to the camera.
Part of what I wanted to do in this ‘zone’ revolved around getting to know those new magnetic lens filters mentioned a few posts back. I found a spot where I could put the bag down, get the tripod out, and get busy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ten stop ND, with a stacked circular polarizer, for this one.
I’ve been desirous of shooting ‘low and slow’ for a bit now, and this was one of the first chances to do so that’s popped up in a while. There’s no point to the exercise if there isn’t flowing water in the shot, or something else that’s moving which you want to blur away, using this technique.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
All downhill from Millvale
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s metro area features a bunch of smaller neighboring communities around its municipal borders, and along the Allegheny River’s shoreline – just north easterly of Troy Hill and west of Etna – is found Millvale.
I’ve been to Millvale before, specifically to the fantastic riverfront trail public space they host, but this time around I decided to start things off up in their hills. A rideshare carried me here from Dormont, in the South Hills region of Pittsburgh, and I was dropped off at a randomly chosen point of prominence with some altitude.
‘Not every walk has to be a marathon, Mitch…’ that’s something I try to remind myself of these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a warm and humid July day in Pittsburgh, and your humble narrator was prepared for both shvitz and a slog. I had a deadline ahead of me, driving my steps as it were, since a weather system was meant to be blowing in during the afternoon which would bring thunderstorms and all sorts of airborne chaos to the region.
The following week would be subsumed by a heat wave and wildfire smoke conditions, which would sideline me for several days.
As a note: The Newtown Pentacle Time Warp remains strongly in effect. These shots were gathered on the 7th of July, and the words you’re reading were encoded on the 19th of the same month. If this scheduled post publishes when I believe it will, you’re seeing this on a Monday in early September. Building up the ‘lead time’ for these postings seriously ‘depressurizes’ my life.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Steep, that’s how I’d describe the streets in this part of Millvale.
I was heading, ultimately, downhill and towards the Millvale Riverfront Park. Said park adjoins the larger Three Rivers Heritage Trail, sections of which I’ve walked several times. My normal habit for this area is to use the trails found on Herr’s Island, and then cross back over to ‘the triangle’ via the 40th street Bridge, but this time around I wanted to stick to the northern shoreline and follow the water.
Did I mention how uncomfortable the weather was, on this particular day?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The TV weather people had described the humidity with the term ‘air you could wear.’ It had to be 80% and rising as I made my way down to the waterfront. The breeze was tepid, or absent. Only thing ‘on my side’ during this one was that the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself was occluded by thick banks of smoke and clouds.
It was the sort of day that required me to dry my hands off before setting up a shot, as sweat was emanating out from the palms and between my fingers. Hot!
As usual, the summertime ‘Mitch suit’ was worn – cargo shorts, a t-shirt, and a white Guayabera as an outer shell. The Carribeans know what they’re doing, as far as dressing during humid weather with evaporative cooling in mind.
The camera bag was full of gear, as one had prepared for a variety of circumstances when filling it. As mentioned a few posts back, I recently had to buy a new pair of shoes, so I was walking all springy and bouncy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The steep residential street I was walking on, and which all these photos were recorded along, is called Logan Street – if memory serves.
I had randomly picked an intersection at the top of a hill to start this one from, specifically a roadway which intersects with another road that leads westerly back to Troy Hill. Said intersecting road is set in along a ridge line, which promises interesting views. My pet name for that road is ‘next.’
Methodology wise, I like to explore regions and areas in ‘chunks.’ You do one chunk this week, then another the next, and then another…
Over the last three and a half years, with about an eight month interval lost to recovering from a busted ankle, a lot of my scuttling time here in Pittsburgh has been spent walking around and getting to know the fascinating ‘South Side Slopes’ area. It’s an easy reach from HQ, and is also quite convenient as far as transit goes, but novelty wears away.
Over the course of time, you walk one path and then another, and eventually stitch together the ‘where’s’ and ‘when’s,’ and just maybe the ‘why’s’ of a place. The ‘how’s’ are usually carefully hidden behind the ‘what’s.’ At the end of the game, one has hopefully developed some geographic knowledge about a place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yes, Millvaliens, I’m not going to discuss ‘the’ church, or its Maxo Vanko murals, for this post. That will be a future endeavor after I manage to talk myself inside, to wave the camera around. No point in talking about something I can’t show, as of yet.
Instead, I’m just scuttling right past it, and towards that underpass which carries Route 28 above the street instead.
Back with more, tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Burnt ends
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few odds and ends shots from a visit to the Millvale River Walk space on the Allegheny River, just east of ‘Pittsburgh proper,’ greet you today. As described, this was a scouting scuttle, wherein I was checking the place out and seeing if there were any interesting compositions to be exploited during intervals when the weather was a bit more photogenic.
I was laughing when shooting this one. The bathroom facility was locked up, and needing to urinate, I walked down a flight of steps meant for fishermen to use and pissed into the river. What was funny about this, to me, was the yiddish expression which my grandmother would often offer – ‘Gain pishen af’n y’am’ – which is offered phonetically as I don’t know how to spell it – which translates to ‘go piss in the ocean.’
I wondered how you’d say river in yiddish during this elimination of bodily waste, which generally cracked me up for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the southern shore of the Allegheny pictured above, and I think that the area in frame is called Lawrenceville, but you really shouldn’t take my word for that as I’m still entirely reliant on my phone for navigation here in Pittsburgh. It’s an odd sensation for someone like me – who would throw down in arguments about where Williamsburg and Greenpoint ended and Bushwick began, explain to people that their house was in Astoria but their back yard was in Woodside, and knew where the geographic versus population centers of NYC were.
I love not knowing and the lack of certainty, and ignorance is great. Forces you to learn stuff, if you’re smart.
A storm that was coming in from the southwest would stick around for several days and dump close to four and a half inches of rain on Pittsburgh. The rivers rose, and all of the shoreline trails flooded. It was very exciting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s warmed up and dried out a bit here since these shots were captured. I’ve been in three of these United States since then, although I just kind of drove into the tippity tip of West Virginia so I don’t know if that counts.
Back next week, with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Millvale scuttle
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One piloted the Mobile Oppression Platform over to the community of Millvale recently, to check out a ‘river walk’ trail that I’ve had pegged on my Google maps inventory for a while now. This spot is on the north coast of the Allegheny River and just east of Pittsburgh proper. Active rail moves through here, and there’s also plenty of ruined rail infrastructure to inspect as well.
Funny thing is, this was a particularly annoying afternoon for me but that had little to do with the two or three miles of photowalking which I came here to experience. In general, but specifically on this afternoon, the human infestation just sucks the joy out of everything.
People, amirite?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This trail is a part of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, a combined bike and pedestrian dealie which snakes all around the Pittsburgh Metro area.
There’s a parking lot, which is where I left the car while walking around – as you’d imagine. When it was time for me to leave, I get into the car and pull out of the spot. Where I pulled out, it’s a marked lane indicating travel in the other direction, which means I needed to cross to the other side of the lot where the intended direction is allowed to travel. Thing is, just as I pulled out of the spot and into the lane, I see these two guys on bikes riding towards me, so I immediately come to a complete stop with the intention of waiting for them to pass before I do anything else.
Now, these two guys – they were the ‘Bro Type’ of bikers. You know these sorts of testosterone monkeys – wearing Oakley mirror sunglasses, bike helmets, the biker’s stretchy shorts, and logo laden silky bicycle shirts. The bike is outfitted with multiple water bottles and gadgets. The sort who talk about riding a bicycle with the thousand mile stare of a combat veteran.
One of them (the apparent Dominar who likely self describes himself as an ‘Alpha’ or ‘Sigma’ male) rides up to my drivers side window, while I’m waiting for them to pass rather patiently – with a sneer on his face – to inform me that ‘it’s one way, asshole’ and then gestures at my rear view mirror in a manner that indicated he was planning on knocking it off the door.
Why are ‘the bicycle people’ always such complete and utter dicks?
Four wheels bad, two wheels good, that’s why. Seriously, their two road bikes probably cost as much as my car did. They were drivers too, obviously, as I saw them unloading their bikes from a rack on the back of a Subaru. I’ll bet you anything that they wouldn’t have sat there patiently waiting for me to pass if I was walking past their car.
When the guy mouthed off at me, I let him know what Brooklyn sounded like, and he seemed shocked by both the depths of my profanity and the revelation which he received about his Mother’s sexual proclivities. Specifically shocking to him was Mommy’s passion for lying down with the beasts of the field, while singing Dixie.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Closer to home and later on in the day, I found myself merging into a turn lane in the center of the City, something which another driver some four to five car lengths behind me displayed great umbrage over.
A tiny person who was driving a gray Volkswagen, this eidelon of assholes started steady honking her horn at me while throwing up both middle fingers, and unintelligibly screaming hostilities out her car window. This series of behavioral tics were observed in my rear view mirror when she was merely two car lengths away, as traffic compressed behind a red light – which also seemed to upset her. The tirade continued for about two to three miles, until she triumphantly passed me by at a traffic light, with one last middle finger salute offered as she passed. Wow.
Road rage is a really, really weird phenomena and I just don’t understand why the angry humans act as they do. It doesn’t make sense, and why do something so high energy if it isn’t going to achieve anything at all? I mean… there’s traffic and a red light. Why would you accelerate your vehicle if you’re coming up to a complete stop?
It… doesn’t… make… sense…
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
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